March 16th Quintiles Half Marathon

The door flies open and all I hear from under my blanket is my dad say "race time". All I do is reply with a grunt and roll off the bed and stare at the ceiling and ask myself why that heck am I doing this. Like everyone night before any race not matter the size or importance I had a restless night with my mind buzzing about the race. By the time I pull myself off the ground I smell that sweet sweet smell of coffee coming from the kitchen. No one truly loves waking up at 4 a.m. but coffee can make it some what better. With my cup of coffee in one hand and my pre-race nutrition in the other I sat on my bed pondering about the next few hours ahead of me. With a few more grunts I get up and leave with my older brother (support) and my dad (who is also running). And of course the first thing I do when I get in the car is throw on some dub step to get the blood flowing.

The next hour or so fly by with the many trips to the port-a-potties and the nice warm up before the start line up. With the not so bad sound track blaring I start to enter my pre-race hyper concentration. Yes I know you are probably like, wait hold on pre-race hyper concentration, but yes that is how I am before a race. I do not like standing at a starting line all serious face and what not. I am there to have fun and enjoy what I love doing and that is running. Before a race you will find me jumping around dancing and singing just having a good time. Around 6:45 a.m. the first wave went off then the serious face came on as my hand rested on my watch and I got into my starting position. After that the next one hour twenty-six minutes became a blur in my life full of pain and praying. Everyone two miles I took on water and on the sixth mile I took on my nutrition which is simply a GU gel. With my lovely Stinson Hoka One One shoes I still felt fresh on my feet allowing me to still have fun while I ran with the spectators and my fellow racers as I ran by them. Around the seventh mile that is when my body felt like it was going down hill. Every mile seemed to be getting longer and longer and my knee seemed to hurt more and more. But I kept my mind in the game focusing only on form, breathing, and my pace. Right around mile nine is when I finally hit my runners high were all the pain just left me and it felt like I was floating. All I was thinking about was the next group or lone runner struggling ahead of me as I felt fresh in the last three miles of the run. Then that moment when you think your on the final stretch so you pick up you pace then realize it is not the final stretch so you get back into your pace and everyone around you is looking at you like you are insane. I finally got to the final stretch and I always seem to have a little something left to push the sprint in against those people trying to make up one or two spots in the last 200 meters. Crossing over another finish line no matter what the distance or your time it is an amazing feeling up until that moment when you can not feel your legs and you just collapse. So after spending three minutes in the medical tent with a blanket and a very potent Gatorade drink I was able to walk out and watch my dad cross the finish line like a champ.

The next hour or so was spent looking at pictures my brother took and seeing friends who ran as well. Then the rain finally came right at the beginning of the award ceremony. After climbing the step ladder with a throbbing knee to the stage to accept my coffee cup award we left with out heads high knowing we left everything out on the run. And of course I want to thank God for giving me the power and strength to get me through this tough race. He is my power to keep driving forward in my sport. So until next time I will be training and praying to better myself as a person and as a triathlete.

February 28th

So I am sitting in a local coffee joint pondering about my training from earlier on in the day. Nothing like analyzing your workout over a nice cup of coffee. My dad (who in the same is my coach) instructed me to do an hour interval session on the bike followed by some base miles running. And with that my coach/dad/training partner had to leave for work. So with no one else to bear the cold with me today I got ready for a nice 35 degree bike ride with a 20 degree wind chill. So to sum up my bike in the first five minutes I lost feeling in my feet and five minutes after that my hands went numb. Me and my dad have a loop mapped out so we can stay off the main roads when we train alone. But it never fails to run into some pedestrian who is oblivious to the rules of the road. To have a mini van come across your lane and almost hit you because he wanted to check his mail. After me tell him I was there he decided to follow me and yell.. which only made my workout that much harder or more fun for me. I guess you could look at it both ways. Well after about ten minutes of him following me he finally decided it was useless. So I finished up my freezing cold bike ride peacefully. Now was time for the run.. the dread swept over me at this point because I have been dealing with some meniscus problems for the past week or so. It tends to hurt the most when it is cold outside so I knew the moments I started my warm up the pain would be shooting through me like a hot knife through butter. Now you are probably asking yourself why am I running injured. Me and my dad have decided that this injury is due to my form or my shoes. My shoes are the Stinson Trails from Hoka One One but its not the fact that its a bad shoe but the fact that I love the shoe so much that I ran it all the way to the ground. I am getting my second pair on Monday which i am excited about! But that is my training for today and now I have to go to work at the amazing shop of GNC.

January 21st Training

So that feeling of not being able to move before a run because of your workout from the day before. I have never been so sore after a bike ride since Beach to Battleship. And to top it off I decided I wanted to run intervals for my morning workout instead of a 45 minute easy run. Long story short I had no fun on my first run of the day. If it had not been for my amazing Stinsion Trail running shoes made by Hoka One One I am sure I would not have been able to finish my run. After lunch a nice cold swim at the local YMCA should help me loosen up with some hot tub time to stretch. Followed by a nice easy 45 minute run to close out the day of training before the cold snap hits North Carolina.

Introduction To My Blog

Hello my name is Brandon Nix and this is my triathlon blog. I want to thank you for viewing my blog and I hope you will enjoy it. On this blog I will be posting about my training life and my race life. I may also blog about nutrition and training information. I will also be taking question and answering them on my blog. Thanks for your time and I look forward to your questions.